Caribbean – Diary – Page 21

22.04. – 01.05.2024

A German-Swedish reunion and an entry with obstacles…

We leave St. Thomas and head for Culebra, an island in the Spanish Virgin Islands, which already belongs to Puerto Rico and is on the way to the main island.

Here we'll meet up again with the Swedish crew of the SY Lulu, with whom we sailed together for a while a few weeks ago. Our paths diverged in Sint Maarten – but now we'll catch up with them again...

During the crossing, Bernd casts his line again and is lucky, so we can have another fish evening with Magnus and Jodi from the SY Lulu… with steaks for me, of course…

Since we've already cleared customs in the US, we assume that registering in Puerto Rico will be problem-free. And that's exactly how it seems at first – Bernd registers us via the CBP app and gets an appointment for a video conference with immigration officials. The officer contacts us promptly via video call, and after we've both verified ourselves, we get the OK and are supposed to receive a cruising permit by email. It arrives an hour later, authorizing us to stay and sail freely along the Puerto Rican coast.

But that same night we received another message: “Entry denied”…

Clarification by phone and video call is no longer possible – so the next morning Bernd heads to the airport to the customer service office on site.

The official can't explain the rejection – yes, we meet all the requirements for entry – but he also can't explain why the system rejected us: "Technical failure..." It takes an hour to officially welcome us back to the USA. To be on the safe side, we get our cruising permit again – the old-school way – in paper form and with a stamp. We can now move around freely here until the end of June...

We can then celebrate this in the evening with the Swedes Jodi and Magnus from the SY Lulu with a fishy dinner.

But it's not just the Swedes who are happy about our stay on Culebra – a flock of swallows – not that I've ever seen swallows in the Caribbean before… – is absolutely thrilled with our Joline and hovers around our boat for days…

Maybe you think a tree is a tree…?

I strongly suspect that they're thinking about nesting, and I give them a stern talking to... but that doesn't stop them from their enthusiastic visits...

Yes, we are real animal whisperers, now we have a boat crab – Jean the Second and soon also boat swallows….

While snorkeling recently, Bernd even managed to spot a small fish that was swimming excitedly around us, getting in the way of every other swimming movement, and was obviously determined to form a school with us. It followed us to the boat, but then stumbled upon the swimming ladder...

The next day, we head out for pizza and explore the small town. We discover an ice cream parlor offering interesting ice cream concoctions, but after the greasy pizzas, we can't eat any more. So we decide to have ice cream instead of dinner the next day. Well, the ice cream parlor—which, according to the sign, is open daily—is firmly closed. Island time... so no ice cream...

On Friday we set off together with the SY Lulu to the beach of the small neighboring island of Culebrita.

The island is surrounded by a reef, offering wonderful snorkeling opportunities. There's also an old lighthouse, so Bernd has something to climb on...

In Culebrita, our paths separate again – Magnus and Jodi sail back to Culebra because they want to pick up spare parts from there, and we continue to the next island, to the next snorkeling stop: Luis Pena.

We'll take a detour to Rosario Beach on Culebra to explore the famous Flamingo Beach, then head for Los Palominos, a private island with two chic resorts. From here, the main island of Puerto Rico is already within sight. Our next destination: the capital, San Juan.